Enjoy

If you have a poem or poems posted on your blog, link up below, or paste your poem(s) in the comments!
You can post this week's poems whenever they're ready — the linky will remain open for awhile. To be eligible for a prize, link up or paste your poem(s) before Monday.

I'll announce the WINNERS after that!

I've so enjoyed doing this Weekly Parenting Poetry Workshop with you! Thanks to all of you who participated and shared so openly and fully — what an honor it's been to journey alongside you in creativity.

May 3: Work: How does your family combine earning a living with raising children?

The power of a paycheck

A five-year-old on the chain gang of his choosing,
finding tasks at home and office for coins apiece,
his piggy bank talking to him — to us — with unmoving lips,
Feed me, feed me.
Entrepreneur boy, you've inherited your parents' spirit
to be your boss, to make your rules,
and your uncle's drive to earn.
Preschool tycoon,
robber baron of my pocket change,
collecting your paycheck in pennies
and blowing it all on toys.

Mikko's cake stand, where he attempted
to charge Sam and me $10 for each chopped-up piece.

May 4: Siblings: Write about those tumultuous, rewarding, exasperating relationships — your own experiences, your children's, your hope for your family size, or stopping at an only.

Brothers

The lips, perhaps, or the cheeks —
definitely the cheeks —
proclaim your genetic similarities,
and something indefinable
that calls you brothers
despite the disparities
in blue and hazel eyes,
in coarse-curly and feather-straight hair,
in balance and milestones and teeth,
in clothing size and even noise,
so very yourselves, so very unique.

The delight is the same, though,
the catch in my heart
when I glimpse either charming face,
the wish for your future
of love, and connection, and full flight of dreams.

Who knew a heart could stretch farther
than even the body around it
that housed you each in succession?
Who knew love could flow out and envelop
so big a group — bigger —
and never grow anything but thicker,
like the blood joining us all together?

Link up your posts or paste your poems in the comments!

Please comment on the participant directly above you and one other participant of your choice. Feel free to share each other's poems on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, or Twitter (#parentingpoetry) — everyone can use a little poetry!

I'm asking for your email address in the linky so I can notify you if you're a winner. If you aren't linking up, you can leave your email address in the comments.